Socioeconomic status and biological factors on the nutritional health of an urban community of Cape Verdean children residing in Portugal

Background and aims: Southern European countries have been showing high overweight and obesity (OW/OB) rates especially among the younger generations (Cattaneo et al. 2010). Portugal is one of those countries with 37.9% overweight and 15.3% obesity in 6 to 8 year olds (Rito et al. 2012). However little is known about the health of ethnic minorities living in its capital city, Lisbon. The Cape Verdean community in Lisbon, the second largest group in Portugal, would be expected to be more affected by this epidemic due to social inequalities. This community also tend to have low educational levels, material deprivation and struggle with discrimination and racism, factors that would likely be associated with a higher prevalence of OW/OB. The aim of this study was to assess the nutritional status of Cape Verdean ancestry children aged 6 to 12 years old living in Lisbon according to their socioeconomic status, general living conditions, family composition, diet and physical activity levels. To compare the findings with previous projects conducted in 1993 and 2009 in the same location with Cape Verdean ancestry children and with Portuguese ancestry children (national study conducted in 2009). To determine what early life factors have significant effect on these children's nutritional health. Methods : Physical measures and household information were collected from November 2013 to February 2014 in Cova da Moura Neighbourhood in Lisbon. Physical measures included height, weight, skinfolds, arm and waist circumferences. From these survey data body mass index (BMI) and the prevalence of stunting (chronic malnutrition - low height-for- age) and underweight (low-weight-for-age) were calculated according to reference values proposed by Frisancho (2008). Overweight and obesity values were defined based on the references established by the International Obesity Task Force (IOTF), CDC, and WHO depending on the specific aim or research question. Results: Results show this is a very deprived community with low educational levels and mostly employed in the service sector. Maternal height and child birth order showed a significant association with child's height. Moreover maternal height and age are associated with child leg length. Living in a single parent family is associated with an increase in child BMI of 1.412 units when accounting for maternal waist circumference. Also significant differences in height for boys and girls were observed between Cape Verdean and Portuguese children. Generally, Cape Verdeans growth falls within the healthy range of International growth references across all of the survey data collected. Cape Verdean rates for combined over nutrition (overweight and obesity) in 2013 (9.8% for boys and 16.7% for girls) are lower than the Portuguese (33% for boys and 31.7% for girls). Logistic regression models showed that Cape Verdean children have a lower risk of being OW/OB compared to Portuguese children when accounting for breastfeeding,birth weight,maternal education and occupation. Conclusions : Despite living in a deprived neighbourhood these Cape Verdean children seem to have grown healthier than Portuguese ancestry children. The challenge for policy makers will be to support improvement of the poverty related living conditions of this community without creating a risky environment for increasing prevalence of overweight and obesity

Radiumisotope als Tracer für den Elementkreislauf an ozeanischen Randgebieten

Trace elements (TEs) play crucial roles in regulating ocean processes including marine biogeochemical cycles, and are therefore vital to support marine life. Understanding the biogeochemical cycling of TEs requires knowledge of their sources/ sinks and transport in the oceans. Radium isotopes are suitable tools to study inputs of elements from the continental margins, as they are produced by the decay of thorium isotopes in sediments, and are soluble in seawater. Therefore, in this Ph.D. thesis, I used Ra isotopes to determine boundary TE fluxes from two diverse environments that constrain the major TE sources, including shelf sediments in an Arctic shelf region and in an eastern boundary system off the western African coast, as well as rivers such as the River Congo. First, the distributions of the dissolved and total dissolvable TEs (Cd, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn, and Co) were investigated in the Chukchi Sea and 228Ra isotope was applied as tracer of benthic TE inputs. The results show that elevated benthic TE inputs on the Chukchi shelf provided suitable conditions for phytoplankton blooms. The 228Ra activities in spring appear to be 2-fold higher than in summer, which was a surprising observation and requires further investigation. Next, 228Ra was used to investigate the influence of the Congo River on surface ocean TE concentrations in the South Atlantic Ocean. The results show that the Congo River plume constitutes a large and unexpected input of TEs (Fe, Mn, and Co) into the South Atlantic. Finally, Ra isotopes were used to investigate a number of key ocean boundary processes in the Southeast Atlantic Ocean. Upwelling in the Benguela region is visible in the Ra distributions, and elevated Ra isotopes, Fe (II) and Si concentrations were observed in the Benguela oxygen minimum zone, possibly due to inputs from the reducing shelf sediments, or submarine groundwater discharge along the Namibian shelf.Spurenelemente spielen eine zentrale Rolle in der Regulation ozeanischer Prozesse einschließlich des marinen biogeochemischen Kreislaufs und sind dadurch eine zentrale Voraussetzung für das Leben im Meer. Das Verständnis der biogeochemischen Kreisläufe der Spurenelemente basiert auf dem Wissen um deren Quellen, Senken und Transportwege innerhalb des Ozeans. Die Radiumisotope, welche als Zerfallsprodukt von Thorium in Sedimenten entstehen, sind wasserlöslich und haben sich als nützliche Werkzeuge herausgestellt, die den Input von solchen Elementen aus den kontinentalen Hängen nachvollziehen lassen. Diese verwende ich in der vorliegenden Dissertation, um die bedeutendsten Spurenelementquellen zu beleuchten, die den Austausch zwischen Schelfsedimenten und dem angrenzenden Ozean vornehmen. Dies geschieht anhand zweier kontrastierender Umgebungen, dem arktischen Schelf und des östlichen „Grenzsystems“ vor der Küste Westafrikas, das auch Flusseinträge wie zum Beispiel aus dem Kongo beinhaltet. Zunächst wurde die Verteilung der gelösten und säurelöslichen Spurenelemente (Cd, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn und Co) in der Tschuktschensee untersucht. Als Tracer zur Bestimmung benthischen Eintrags wurde dort 228Ra verwendet. Des Weiteren wurde 228Ra verwendet, um den Einfluss des Kongo, auf die im oberen Ozean befindlichen Spurenelemente im Südatlantik zu untersuchen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Flusswasserfahne des Kongo einen unerwartet großen Eintrag bioessentieller Spurenelemente in den Südatlantik ausmacht. Mit Hilfe der Radiumisotope wurden abschließend eine Reihe von Schlüsselprozessen im Grenzflächenaustausch des Südost-Atlantiks untersucht. Der Auftrieb der Benguela-Region ist ebenfalls in der Radiumverteilung ersichtlich. Gleichzeitig weisen erhöhte Konzentrationen der Radiumisotope, Fe (II) und Si in der Benguela-Sauerstoffminimumzone auf Zufuhr aus reduzierenden Schelfsedimenten oder aus unterseeischem Grundwasseraustritt entlang des Namibianischen Schelfs hin

Radium isotopes as tracers of element cycling at ocean boundaries

Trace elements (TEs) play crucial roles in regulating ocean processes including marine biogeochemical cycles, and are therefore vital to support marine life. Understanding the biogeochemical cycling of TEs requires knowledge of their sources/ sinks and transport in the oceans. Radium isotopes are suitable tools to study inputs of elements from the continental margins, as they are produced by the decay of thorium isotopes in sediments, and are soluble in seawater. Therefore, in this Ph.D. thesis, I used Ra isotopes to determine boundary TE fluxes from two diverse environments that constrain the major TE sources, including shelf sediments in an Arctic shelf region and in an eastern boundary system off the western African coast, as well as rivers such as the River Congo. First, the distributions of the dissolved and total dissolvable TEs (Cd, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn, and Co) were investigated in the Chukchi Sea and 228Ra isotope was applied as tracer of benthic TE inputs. The results show that elevated benthic TE inputs on the Chukchi shelf provided suitable conditions for phytoplankton blooms. The 228Ra activities in spring appear to be 2-fold higher than in summer, which was a surprising observation and requires further investigation. Next, 228Ra was used to investigate the influence of the Congo River on surface ocean TE concentrations in the South Atlantic Ocean. The results show that the Congo River plume constitutes a large and unexpected input of TEs (Fe, Mn, and Co) into the South Atlantic. Finally, Ra isotopes were used to investigate a number of key ocean boundary processes in the Southeast Atlantic Ocean. Upwelling in the Benguela region is visible in the Ra distributions, and elevated Ra isotopes, Fe (II) and Si concentrations were observed in the Benguela oxygen minimum zone, possibly due to inputs from the reducing shelf sediments, or submarine groundwater discharge along the Namibian shelf